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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

For those who pierce their baby's ears...

645 replies

Username7654321 · 29/11/2017 16:47

Would you see it as okay to pierce their nose? Eyebrow? Tongue? Why is it okay to stab a needle through the ear lobe, when presumably most people would be horrified by any other piercing on a baby?!

OP posts:
Aweektilltheseason · 30/11/2017 21:32

Saves the effort of... Having to have it done?? Who has to have it done? I don't!

Strokethefurrywall · 30/11/2017 21:32

I get a sense on this thread of "British morality/standards" are best and the inferior cultures surely have no idea what they are doing/trauma /damage they are causing those babies. Some of you need to wind it in a bit and wonder why you have such strong disregard for other people's cultural practices... the poor savages

This thread is almost ENTIRELY the above.

and
I think it's a pretty sick thing to do to a baby. Permanently altering their body and causing them pain intentionally in the name of culture or fashion. It's wrong on so many levels. I totally judge people who do this.

Do you really judge the entire Latin American and Spanish community? And everyone in India?
That's an amazing level of sanctimony right there... well done for being of the morally superior culture. Star

JacquesHammer · 30/11/2017 21:34

Gosh that sounds awfully tiring Jaques

Not really. Maybe you tire easily Grin

Longdistance · 30/11/2017 21:38

Oh good lord. Not this debate again.

Only in the Uk I have ever known anyone to get their knickers in a twist about babies getting their ears pierced.

I had mine done when I was a baby. It is traditional in my dps culture.

Beansonapost · 30/11/2017 21:39

@DeleteOrDecay hop off the wheel dear.

Beansonapost · 30/11/2017 21:41

@Username7654321

I know plenty atheists who have had their ears pierced since they were babies... their parents were atheists as well.

Because you know culture🤷‍♀️.

DeleteOrDecay · 30/11/2017 21:41

hop off the wheel dear.

Hmm

Answer my question then, 'dear'.

Original poster
Username7654321 · 30/11/2017 21:42

What?

OP posts:
MrsDaveLister · 30/11/2017 21:42

My ears were pierced as a baby. I don't remember it & they were closed up by the time I had them pierced myself at 13 so I wasn't permanently scarred. In fact the second holes I had done at 15 don't even exist now.

MissBax · 30/11/2017 21:44

So we've summed up that as long as a baby doesn't remember something, and it isn't permanent, it is okay to inflict pain??

Alpacaandgo · 30/11/2017 21:45

Yep, judge them all. Just because it's culturally acceptable, it doesn't make it right. I'm from a Spanish family where it's 'normal'. My baby niece had hers done and I was there with my sil. She screamed so much she could barely breathe. It's horrific. Made me sick to my stomach.

Original poster
Username7654321 · 30/11/2017 21:46

Alpacaandgo that's awful :( how did SIL react??

OP posts:
Tstar27 · 30/11/2017 21:52

What about cutting/ styling your child's hair the way I want to- is that also bad and on the same level as piercing ears and the food these kids are fed? Personally I think you should focus on your own kids and let other parents theirs

Original poster
Username7654321 · 30/11/2017 21:54

Tstar - well unless you're inflicting pain when doing so, I don't see it as the same thing.

OP posts:
sugaredstrawberries · 30/11/2017 22:10

Missiondecsion totally agree!

Rebeccaslicker you fired at greenypurple for using, what you say, a invalid and silly comparison yet others on this thread against piercing have done exactly the same in terms of bringing abuse and mutilation into the discussion Hmm I'm not against what your saying as I don't judge however, you can't agree with one and not the other when they are doing exactly the same thing.

Deleteordecay but a baby will cry with as much emotion as that video when you give them the yellow bowl instead of the pink one, or they are hungry, or they have had a vaccination, or they don't want to eat their tea and want dessert instead..... babies/children's emotions are much stronger than an adults, they see everything as the end of the world, fact. I'm not saying I disagree with you because to be honest, I don't hold a stance on this, I think it's everyone to their own, I'm just pointing out that this argument perhaps doesn't hold up to well.

As for those saying "can't we worry about more than one thing" that's not what I said, never did I say you can't worry about more than one thing, I'm just stating a point that their is so many more important things going on in this world than a child having their ears pierced and perhaps the frustration you feel would be better placed in those situations (and trust me, there is millions of them)

Original poster
Username7654321 · 30/11/2017 22:19

but a baby will cry with as much emotion as that video when you give them the yellow bowl instead of the pink one, or they are hungry, or they have had a vaccination, or they don't want to eat their tea and want dessert instead.....

But we KNOW piercings hurt. I have 9, and each one hurt. My lobes more than others. As some people have stated - they wouldn't have had them pierced as adults because of the pain. So why inflict that on a baby?

OP posts:
DeleteOrDecay · 30/11/2017 22:25

but a baby will cry with as much emotion as that video when you give them the yellow bowl instead of the pink one, or they are hungry, or they have had a vaccination, or they don't want to eat their tea and want dessert instead.....

What's your point here? The baby in the video clearly wasn't crying because she was given the wrong colour bowl. The baby was crying because she'd just had two pieces of metal forced through her ear lobes and it hurt.

Shockers · 30/11/2017 22:28

If someone used a wall stapler on their baby’s ear, they’d be arrested...

Honestly, if the wall stapler was hygienic, what’s the difference?

Originalfoogirl · 30/11/2017 22:40

when ear lobes are softer etc.
😂 this wins the thread for me.

Earlobes are tissue, just as “soft” in adults as in children

Nottheduchessofcambridge · 30/11/2017 22:46

Ah, a thread full of people trying to justify sticking a needle in a baby for cosmetic reasons. Warms the cockles it does Hmm

MistressDeeCee · 30/11/2017 23:25

I had mine done as a baby. I don't remember the pain. Didn't grow up in pain because of it. Ditto DDs. I don't care what people think about ear piercing, momentary pain is 'do what's to men . Just don't get your child's ears pierced, that's all. Everyone in my culture has ear piercing what's it got to do with anyone else?

Rainbunny · 30/11/2017 23:36

I stand by my opinion that it's a bad thing to do to a young child/baby but if people are going to do it I implore them to not get the cheap piercing gun version at a Claire's or similar place. Piercing guns are bad for several reasons:

  1. They cannot be effectively kept sterile. A simple alcohol wipe won't begin to get all the necessary parts sterile enough.
  2. They are not as sharp as a professional piercing needle, they are quite a bit more blunt which factors into the next point:
  3. Piercing guns work by blunt force which means more chance of scar tissue and infection. The injury it causes in the earlobe is more like a crush injury to the soft tissue than a proper piercing.
  4. There is no proper training or certification required for the shop assistant at Claire's (or wherever) to use the piercing gun. Perhaps a youtube video and some practice on cardboard or a soft toy first! In my part of the world, professional piercers have to go through far more extensive training and be licensed.
haarlandgoddard · 30/11/2017 23:54

I wouldn’t pierce my baby’s ears and I agree that it’s wrong, but your examples are a bit silly OP.

The vast majority of women have their lobes pierced, so it’s not the same as an eyebrow piercing for that reason alone. Some people think it’s better to do it when they won’t remember and they heal quicker, especially if every other little girl in your child’s class is going to have them, your child is bound to ask when they get older. That doesn’t make them awful, does it?

Rebeccaslicker · 30/11/2017 23:55

Funkky - maybe your husband wouldn't be so quick to laugh at this thread if he knew what he'd lost in terms of sexual pleasure and sensitivity by losing his foreskin without having any say in the matter... having been out with men who've been both circumcised and uncircumcised, I feel rather sorry for him really!

Morphene · 30/11/2017 23:59

YoloSwaggins change the record love - for one thing if you RTFT you'll see someone has indeed posted they had their done young and are disgusted by it.